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Thursday, 8 September 2016

Chicken supplier Ansar Mahmood escapes jail over maggot-ridden meat premises
Rotting chicken found at the premises of A S Poultry, run by Ansar Mahmood, who was convicted of 16 food safety and hygiene breaches.

Bradford Crown Court was told that it was only by good fortune that no-one suffered a serious illness or died during Ramadan and Eid in 2015.

Judge Colin Burn told father-of-four Mahmood that he would have been charged with manslaughter if anyone had died.

The court heard how Calderdale Council environmental health officers went to the premises in Battinson Court, Halifax, in June 2015 after an anonymous complaint about the smell of rotting chicken guts and other butchery waste.

When they returned a few days later they saw Mahmood loading a refrigerated van without wearing any protective clothing.

When the waste food bins were inspected they found they were infested with maggots and the inside of the van was dirty.

Prosecutor Abdul Shakoor said when the inspectors went inside the premises it was clear that they were being operated as an unregistered food business.

Mr Shakoor outlined a series of breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations uncovered by the inspectors including a mincer which was infested with maggots and flies.

The court heard that there was a large hole in a basement wall which provided easy access for pests and officers found a five kilo bag of chicken livers which was unfit for human consumption.

Mahmood confirmed that he had been selling chicken to shops in Huddersfield and Calderdale, but he denied ever using the filthy mincer.

He claimed to have only cut up two boxes of chicken at the premises on one occasion and said the equipment belonged to someone else.